German 12th Army

The German 12th Army was a field army of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany that was active from 13 October 1939 to 1943 during World War II. The army was activated with Wilhelm List as its commander, and the division engaged in defensive action along the Siegfried Line before fighting in the Battle of France. The 12th Army was later relocated to Romania as a part of the Axis offensives in the Balkans, and it took up strategic positions in Bulgaria on 28 February 1941 as Bulgaria joined the Axis Powers. On 6 April 1941, the 12th Army invaded Yugoslavia from Bulgaria, and its motorized corps reached Monastir on 9 April. The army's fifteen divisions (including four armored) then invaded Greece, and the German panzers overwhelmed the fatigued Greek Army and British reinforcements from Libya. On 23 April 1941, it forced the northern Greek armies to surrender, and it hoisted the swastika above Athens' Acropolis on 27 April as Nazi tanks entered the Greek capital. In 1943, the army became Army Group E. The 12th Army was reconstituted on 10 April 1945 with Walther Wenck in command, and it made the last attempt by a German army to relieve Adolf Hitler during the Battle of Berlin, and it was stopped by the Soviets at Potsdam. The army and the decimated German 9th Army opened a corridor for soldiers and civilians to cross the Elbe at Tangermunde to surrender to the US Army instead of the vengeful Red Army, and Wenck was one of the last men to cross the river. The 12th Army would surrender to the Americans on 7 May 1945.